[b]Name[/b]: Martha McNally

[b]Alias[/b]: Nelly Roselips

[b]Gender[/b]: Female

[b]Appearance[/b]: Nelly is a bit chubby but looks healthy, there are no visible scars and she has all her teeth. Her eyes are blue and her skin varies from pale to tanned, depending on the season and how much time she spend outside. She has blonde hair with a faint reddish hue in it, which she keeps in a long braid. 
Her clothes are fairly simple: when she’s at home she wears what other Scottish woman wear and on sea she wears a long-sleeved shirt and trousers because that’s easier. Her clothes change depending on the season or the area they're in, in warm weather she wears a linen shirt, in cold weather she'll wear a woollen coat over her shirt and woollen trousers.

[hider=image][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/2b339724-56fe-4f65-ba72-45a770460234.png[/img][/hider]

[b]Equipment[/b]: She always wears a golden pendant in the shape of a rose. She carries a knife with a rosewood handle in her belt at all time and owns a rapier that she only takes with her when she joins on off-boat mission. 
Position on the pirate ship: Cook

[b]Skills[/b]: Cooking, knitting, sewing, basic farming skills, basic butcher skills, reading, writing, sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat.

[b]Weaknesses[/b]: Afraid of snakes

[b]Special characteristics[/b]: Loves roses. She has a pendant in the shape of a rose which she often kisses before battle for good luck. Her husband always offers her a rose when she leaves on a journey and as the ship sets sail she’ll kiss it and throw it overboard. That’s what earned her nickname. 

[b]Family[/b]: Nelly is the daughter of a Scottish pirate boatswain and a Norwegian farmer’s daughter. Her father fell in love with her mother when he had come ashore for supplies with a small crew. He spent his next shore-leave in the same place and the more time they spend together, the more they loved each other. Eventually he asked her to marry him, she agreed and moved to the northern part of Scotland with him.
The couple had several children, only three made it passed the age of four. Nelly was the middle of the surviving children, her brothers are six years older and four years younger.
At the age of fourteen she fell in love with the son of a butcher, they married when she was seventeen.
They have two children, aged 4 and 1, when she chooses the pirate life. Her husband supports this decision, taking care of their children and the butcher shop with his sister when Nelly is at sea.

[b]History[/b]: Nelly grew up in a small house at the outskirts of a village on the north-coast of Scotland. Even though her father brought back plenty of money, they lived a simple life. Nelly learned from an early age to work in the garden, to cook, to knit and to sew, because she was the only daughter of the family. She helped taking care of her younger brother, but also played with her older brother who loved her deeply. 
When her father was home he taught her older brother and her how to defend themselves with a sword, her aunt had died because she couldn’t, and her father didn’t want that to happen to her.
At the age of twelve she was send to the city to attend school, like her brother before her. Her father had saved most of the money he had earned on the pirate ship for this purpose. She attended a girl’s school there for two years, to learn to read and write in English, something her mother never learned to do, and the basics of biology, geology and calculus.
In her second year a butcher opened his shop on the city, having moved there from the countryside. Nelly fell in love with his son, but went home when her second year of education came to an end. 
She continued to live there and travelled to the city at least once per month to visit her lover. When he proposed she accepted and she moved in with him.
As she lived and worked in the butcher shop, she often longingly looked at the sea, where her father works. He had often told her stories about his adventures and she had always wanted to go with him.  
After giving birth to her second child, she told her husband she wanted to join a pirate crew. Her husband already knew about her father being a boatswain on a pirate vessel and it didn’t come as a surprise. He gave her his blessing and she promised to return to him and their children every shore-leave she had, like her father had done too.
She boarded her fathers ship and served as a cook. The captain didn’t believe in the superstition that a woman on board would bring bad luck. The men soon learned she wouldn’t accept any inappropriate behaviour and when a rival group of pirates attacked she fought alongside with them, earning their respect.

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Art is created by [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/users/antiquarian]antiquarian[/url] and can be viewed on [url=https://www.deviantart.com/studioantiquarian/art/Nelly-Roselips-761511232]DeviantArt[/url].

[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/3bad/f/2018/240/c/c/nelly_roselips_by_studioantiquarian-dcldtts.png[/img]
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